The invention relates generally to railcars, and more particularly to an improved railcar for carrying motor vehicles.
One of the challenges in designing railcars for transportation of motor vehicles is to provide sufficient clearance in the railcar interior to permit the doors of the vehicles to be opened to a sufficient degree that drivers can easily enter and exit the vehicles in the course of loading and unloading operations. In the past, the large, heavy vertical posts that support the upper decks of typical auto rack railway cars have intruded significantly into the interior. The vertical posts, along with cross-braces, knee braces and gussets, restrict available interior clearance for opening of automobile doors, and also restrict movement of workers in the railcar interior. Contact with structural components of the railcar may damage the finish on the doors of new motor vehicles. Door edge protection comprising foam padding or the like is generally applied to the railcar interior to prevent such damage, but has the disadvantage of decreasing the available clearance for opening of the doors.
In recent years, clearance has been improved in certain railcar designs. See, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 5,765,486. However, there remains room for improvement in this area.
The width and height of railcar bodies are limited by industry regulations, based on spacing between adjacent tracks and clearance required to avoid trackside equipment, signals, tunnels, etc. Interior width is further limited by the need to include sufficient structure in the sidewalls to support one or more upper decks loaded with motor vehicles, and to accommodate the dynamic loads encountered in commercial rail service. In addition to vertical loads due to the weight of the upper decks and the motor vehicles supported thereon, such loads may also include substantial longitudinal impact loads, as well as lateral loads encountered due to rock and roll of the car bodies, and due to travel on nonlinear track configurations. Any effort to provide increased width must take these factors into account.
Another issue encountered in development of railcars for carrying motor vehicles is increasing the vertical dimension of the space available for motor vehicles on each deck. This is of particular interest with respect to tri-level railcars.
To increase vertical clearance on the bottom deck ("A" deck), the deck may have a lowered central portion, with ramps being provided to carry motor vehicles between the lowered central portion and the end portions. It is generally desirable to maximize the length of the lowered central portion of the A deck, and concomitantly to limit the lengths of the ramps. However, if the slope of the ramps is too great, the bottom clearance for the ends of certain motor vehicles may be insufficient.
The invention generally addresses these and other issues relating to increasing interior clearances in railcars for transportation of motor-vehicles.